Christina School Board's "Race to the Top" workshop

On January 6 the Christina School Board held a workshop on the Memorandum of Understanding with the Delaware Department of Education in regards to the Federal Race to the Top funding.  We're going to examine the Delaware Department of Education's "New Years Resolutions" and today will begin a series of stories related to the statements made by Dr. Lowery and scope of the State’s plan to implement the “Race to the Top” program. Delaware’s Education Secretary (and former Christina School District Superintendent) Dr. Lillian Lowery addressed the school board and a small group of Christina School District insiders (mainly administrators) for close to 2 hours. Her presentation focused on the States application to the Federal government for Race to the Top funding. Over the course of the next week we will dig into the state's plan and Dr. Lowery's presentation to the school board.

Dr. Lowery made it clear from the beginning that the Race to the Top funding depends on “buy-in” from the school districts in Delaware. She also said that the Christina School District and other New Castle County Schools would be receiving “the lions share” of the Race to the Top funding we would receive. How much would the state apply for? According to Secretary Lowery the News Journal Report of $75 million was only off by around $400 million. She intends to apply for an amount equal to Delaware’s entire education budget. In her words “I’m asking for $475 million, but we may not get all of it” but she needs the districts to “buy-in”. This is especially true for the Christina and Red Clay School Districts who have “the lions share” of the Title 1 eligible schools that this money is intended to help. The districts must agree and sign on to the states plan in order for the state to count that district’s Title 1 eligible schools in the application. Of course, this application “buy-in” provides the school boards plenty of time to look through the plan and decide if it can meet the goals right? Wrong, the State must have the school boards answer in time to deliver their application personally to Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan by January 19th.

Dr. Lowery made her “sales pitch” by focusing on two key areas of the funding application: what the state will do and what the LEA’s (school districts) will do. She explained that the funding was split 50-50 between the state Dept. of Ed and the local school districts. Dr. Lowery told the school board that many of the reforms being planned that are “in accordance with” the Race to the Top guidelines were listed in Gov. Markell’s plan for the Delaware education system reform even before Race to the Top was announced. This was in response to the “myth” that Delaware had invented these reforms specifically to achieve “Race to the Top” funding and to use the program as a money grab. However, the Examiner has discovered that Dr. Lowery likely had advanced knowledge of the Race to the Top plan. The Race to the Top plan seems to have been developed as a means to bring about the education reform initiatives of progressive billionaire philanthropists Eli and Edyth Broad. In fact, the appointment of Joanne Weiss as Director of Race to the Top solidifies that idea. Joanne Weiss is so entrenched within the Eli Broad network that the educational organizations at which she is affiliated received more than $22.8 million in contributions from Eli Broad between 2001 and 2007.

Eli Broad also has a direct influence right here in Delaware and specifically within the Christina School District. Kevin Hall, the COO of Broad Foundations was a key member of the Vision 2015 program.  Since 2003 Eli Broad has been installing trained superintendents into the Delaware public school system. The Broad Superintendents Academy was started with the intention of training a new generation of progressive superintendents. In fact, the Academy promises not only 10 months of training but also placement in a superintendent’s role and continued support. In 2008, some of the guest speakers to the BSA graduates were Arne Duncan (then Chicago Public Schools chief), Kevin Hall, Adam Urbanski (Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers (second largest teachers union in the U.S.)) and Mr. Broad himself.

The first of the Broad Academy Superintendents was Dr. Joseph Wise in the Christina School District who is best known for his “questionable purchases”. After Dr. Wise left for Jacksonville, Florida another Broad Superintendents Academy graduate, Dr. Lillian Lowery was brought in to “clean up the mess” left by Dr. Wise. When Dr. Lowery had “saved” the Christina School District she was the immediate candidate for the new Secretary of Education by Gov. Jack Markell in January of this year. Immediately, another BSA graduate Dr. Marcia Lyles stepped right into the Christina School District position. Dr. Lowery worked closely with Gov. Jack Markell to craft his education reform plan from the very beginning. Is there any doubt that both Gov. Markell and Dr. Lowery were well aware that the Race to the Top program was coming?

...To be continued...